172 FOREST RKCTJtATION 



requirements as to location of road, grade and construction, llut 

 in mountain countries a portion of the roads may be free from 

 these requirements, and may serve merely for general travel and to 

 connect different parts of the forest. It is a common thing to locate 

 roads in the Rockies and other mountain districts on top of ridges 

 to insure easier travel, especially less trouble with snow, though, of 

 course, such stretches of road may not be of any use in hauling 

 logs. In new districts, where present methods of logging do not 

 call for ordinary roads, but must resort to special means, railways, 

 slides, chutes, flumes, etc., and where the expense of regular road 

 construction is great and but little justified as yet, this tendency 

 toward building a system of roads primarily for general travel and 

 accessibility will continue and influence the general plan. 



In level and ordinary rolling country the roads should be plan- 

 ned for effective and economic utilization. 



2. In the general plan of development of a system of roads in 

 a new district there is a choice of procedure. We may adopt a 

 general policy regarding the rate of development of roads, and 

 general rules for detail location, grade and construction and then 

 build as we need. Or else, we may plan a definite system based on 

 reliable maps, studied in the field, and finally located on a special 

 "road map'' as "'proposed" road system, to be built as time and 

 money allow, and as necessity arises. 



This latter method will prove best. The development of roads 

 piece-meal and haphazard, building wherever there seems need for 

 it, and adding without plan, has cost millions in the old world, where 

 hundreds of miles of highways have been abandoned, and relocated, 

 and it has cost millions in our country, in railway development alone. 



That the making of this general plan is important and should 

 fall to competent, experienced men is self evident. Mistakes in this 

 work are costly and in most cases later changes are made reluctantly. 



3. To plan a road system with a view to serving also in proper 

 division of the forest is adding an unnecessary complication. Divi- 

 sion of the forest should and naturally will use the roads as far as 

 convenient, but the roads have their own definite functions and 

 should be built for these and these only. 



4 The General Plan for a road system for any given property 

 naturally must depend on conditions of the property itself, and but 



